Chapter 43 - True culprit

Quince and Queen looked at the documents some more before hearing a knock on the door. One walked in with the documents requested by Quince.

Queen hurriedly looked over the documents and opened her mouth wide.

"Quince....this...." She said as she showed the documents to Quince.

Quince nodded and immediately got up from the chair. "Let's go. We got him."

He strode out of the room, followed by Queen.

At the culprit's room:

Quince knocked at the door and waited for the person inside to open it. He was standing in front of Queen.

Queen stood behind him with puffed up cheeks, annoyed that he didn't let her take the lead.

'It's too dangerous.' He said before gently pushing her behind him. She wanted to protest against how unfair he was being but knew that it would fall on deaf ears.

'Smelly cat! I'm the one that's supposed to be protecting you. I ought to have you arrested for obstructing my duty.' Queen thought angrily.

The men Quince sent earlier to guard the room stood beside Queen protectively. That was another thing that frustrated her. He made the men protect her but neglected himself! If she so much as moved a step in front, they would force her behind.

'Cluick' The sound of the knob turned and the man behind came out to greet them.

"Is something the matter?" The man asked, looking confused.

"Yes we would like to speak to you." Quince said.

The man nodded before welcoming Quince in. To avoid triggering the man, Quince didn't let anyone else in.

But Queen thought differently as she marched right behind him.

"You can't!" Quince whispered to her while trying to push her out the threshold.

"I am going. It's just one man! And you're gonna be there with me." She said.

"No!" He refused.

"Oh yes!" She said and immediately twisted her body to walk right in the room.

Quince knew it wasn't the time to argue with her so he had to let her in. 'Stubborn girl' Quince growled in his heart. He vowed to teach her a lesson after this ordeal was over.

They both entered the man's room and shut the door.

The man sat on his bed leisurely with a bottle of whiskey in front of him. He slowly poured the liquid out in to his glass. It was then that Queen and Quince noticed that the atmosphere around him had totally changed.

He took a small sip and gave a sigh.

"So...what do you want?" He asked with a contented smile on his face. He had a dangerous aura around him. It was completely different from his usual polite and cheerful face.

"You know what we want." Quince said in his deep voice.

The man laughed loudly. His body shook with tremors cause by his laughter.

"Do I look like some bloody magician to you? How would I know what you want Masterrrrr Quince?" He slurred Quince's name towards the end.

"Mr.Noah, this doesn't have to end badly. We saw your medical record." Queen said.

"Oh that? Ahahahhahaha!" Noah laughed crazily like a maniac.

Indeed, the file Quince and Queen saw contained the information about Noah.

The truth was, Stuart wasn't the one with double personality. It was Noah all along. His medical certificate just came over and his psychiatrist confirmed that he had a double personality. Moreover, she categorized his subconscious personality as dangerous. He was abused by his parents as a child and formed a violent personality to protect himself.

Stuart and Noah met at the gifted school for kids that Stuart mentioned. They were friends for a long time.

"Why? Why would you kill Mr.Bernard?" Queen asked passionately.

"That bastard deserved to die!" He yelled out madly. "He killed Tom! My poor sweet Tom!"

"Tom....Mr.Albert and Mr.Bernard's friend, Tom?" Queen asked, looking confused. Why would he avenge someone he barely knew?

'Poor sweet Tom? Could it be....' Queen thought and soon Noah gave her the answer.

"My lover Tom!" Noah yelled out.

'Well That was unexpected. I thought they were friends.' Queen looked shocked at his confession.

"Mr.Tom had a girlfriend." Quince said. The file they got confirmed that Tom had been dating his girlfriend for 7 years.

"Ha! That bitch? She was nothing to him. He told me that he found true love after he met me!" Noah laughed eerily.

"How long did you date him?" Quince asked.

"6 months give or take. He was everything to me." Noah answered. "But he died, he died! That bastard Bernard and that damn Albert!"

"They both knew! They knew they were sending him to his death when he went to the association meeting yet they did it!" Noah yelled.

"Oh Tom! Oh Tom!" Noah wailed and drank another glass of whiskey.

Queen and Quince kept quiet as they watched the crazy man together.

They now understood the reason why he killed Mr.Bernard. But there were issues that weren't cleared up yet.

"Why didn't you kill Mr.Albert?" Quince asked.

Noah swallowed his whiskey in one huge gulp before replying,"I will! But I wanted to punish him more. I punished Bernard enough for him to die. He probably went mad running away from those underground gangsters." Noah laughed as he thought about it.

"Do you know they actually tortured him? He screamed like a pig! It was hilarious." Noah said, laughing wildly as he thought of the scene.

"Why would Mr.Albert think Mr.Stuart killed Mr.Bernard?" Queen asked, ignoring his mad laughter.

Immediately Noah stopped laughing. But after a while he gave out a chilly smile,"Simple. I made him believe that by giving him the wrong information. Bernard didn't know nor did Stuart."

"It's not easy to trick and lie to someone. There is no guarantee that they will believe you." Queen said.

"Oh there is! If you manipulate them right that is. Stupid Stuart simply played along to my request. And poor Bernard was tortured so bad he didn't even notice things half the time! To think he actually managed to return the money to Stuart!" Noah laughed crazily again.

"Why would Mr.Stuart help you? He even went so far as to protect you." Quince asked.

"Because that poor boy was bullied in school and I saved him! He still feel the need to help me to this very day. How very stupid!" Noah suddenly got angry and threw the glass on the floor. It crashed and broke into many pieces.

Stuart was constantly bullied in school. But not because he was stupid. It was because he was too smart and that made the other kids jealous. They thrashed him up to vent their stress.

Noah helped Stuart out before he developed the second personality. After that, Stuart swore to do his best to protect Noah.

Quince pulled Queen behind him and said cautiously," Mr.Noah, you should surrender. We have evidence. We recorded everything you just said and we found the chemicals you hid in the engineering room."

Before they came into Noah's room, Queen and Quince talked about the evidence. The chemicals used to create STD are very specific and must be store at the right temperature.

While it was true that engineers with more than 10 years of experience are allowed to create the chemicals, it doesn't mean that anyone can do it. When there is a job, the head of the project is the one that mixes it and keep it.

Noah is the only one that knows the password and holds the key(as well as Quince.) So no one but him can make the STD. In addition, only his alibi was faulty according to One's information.

Since the STD can only be kept for 2 hours, that means the murder must happen in that period of time. Quince made One check all the alibis and found that Noah was alone during that time.

Also, the man himself confessed so everything fell into pieces.

"Did you think I wouldn't know that you're coming?!" Noah yelled madly. "I knew you were going to find out about me so I'm prepared!!"

Noah immediately pulled out a gun from underneath his pillow and pointed at Quince. "I can't let you catch me. I still need to kill that bastard Albert and that man at the association!"

Noah got up and walked closer to Quince and Queen with a gun in his hand. Quince's eyes were alert as he looked at Noah. He made sure Queen was completely hidden behind him and slowly inched backwards as Noah walked towards him.